Sharing and security context menu item disappeared??

What would cause the "sharing and security" context menu option to disappear from all folders and files? If I go into properties, I see the security tab but not the sharing tab.

I know this option used to exist because I once shared out some folders on the desktop.

This computer is used by different people, so potentially someone has changed some setting that I'm not aware of.

This is in a limited user account, but on a different PC, even limited user account can have the sharing and security option.

Don't know if this is related, but the "show hidden files and folder" option in the windows explorer doesn't work -- I can click on that radio button, then click ok. The hidden files are still hidden. When I go back into the option again the radio button has reverted to not show hidden files.

I was in a hurry and under stress when this happened, so maybe I was seeing things... The computer is at work.

I'm using windowsXP pro.

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